Chapter 1 Pre-War Meeting

The cars parked outside, and everyone carried the equipment into the secret base, starting the pre-war meeting.

"We have two tasks. First, disguise ourselves as wanderers and infiltrate Crow's Wood Town to gather intelligence. Second, find any lone Germination sentries nearby and interrogate them about the detailed situation of the Dark Crow Valley base."

Wen Na immediately said, "We'll deal with the sentries; your people can go to Crow's Wood."

Di Su Su frowned. Crow's Wood Town might be harboring Germination spies. Infiltrating it carried the risk of exposure, essentially putting them in a surrounded position, making it difficult to gain anything. Finding and interrogating sentries was easier to accomplish and safer.

The Hai Xia people were eagerly pushing the dangerous and difficult task onto Bureau 13. This attitude made the people of Bureau 13 feel dissatisfied, but the task needed someone to do it, either you or me, so no one objected.

Qi Bai Jia said, "To infiltrate Crow's Wood Town, we must first disguise ourselves as wanderers, then find opportunities to quietly gather information, and absolutely not alert the enemy..."

After discussion, everyone decided that some people would stay behind at the base as backup. The four who stayed were Lin Yao, Qi Bai Jia, Ma Qing Yang, and Han Xiao.

Hai Xia also left a few people to guard the base. Han Xiao only recognized Ye Fan among them.

It was afternoon. The Hai Xia people decided to rest first and set off to find the sentries in the early hours of the morning, when the enemy would be most relaxed. They were equipped with thermal imagers, giving them an advantage in the dark. This also served as a way to have Bureau 13 test the waters first.

With the plan settled, the Bureau 13 agents who would infiltrate were formed into a mixed team, with Di Su Su as the captain. One by one, they changed into the dusty, worn-out appearance of wanderers, hunching their backs, looking as if their spines were bent by invisible pressure. Their disguise was very convincing. Carrying huge bags, they set off on foot toward Crow's Wood.

The secret base was set up with many computer screens, connected to the agents' cameras and earpieces. Han Xiao, Lin Yao, and Qi Bai Jia took turns watching.

Before long, Di Su Su and the others arrived at Crow's Wood Town. The image on the screen showed a small town settlement, with various buildings standing side by side. Although the houses were simple and small, it was densely populated, like a market. The town occupied a considerable area and had everything, even a hotel open for business.

"Let's find a place to stay first."

Di Su Su and the others were questioned by the locals. She answered fluently, pretending to be a migrating group of wanderers, passing by and hoping to rest for a few days. After getting rid of the questioning, they checked into the town's hotel.

Once inside the room, everyone immediately demonstrated their professionalism, checking the room for cameras and listening devices. After quickly confirming that everything was safe, they began to discuss the next step.

"What should we do next?" Li Ya Lin curled her lip, giving Di Su Su a bad look.

Di Su Su was not in the mood to joke with Li Ya Lin at this time. She frowned, resting her chin on her hand, and said seriously, "Our identities are questionable, so it's best to stay put for now."

Han Xiao suddenly said in the earpiece, "You better act tonight."

"Reason," Di Su Su raised an eyebrow.

"You are now a group of foreign wanderers. Playing your current role well, inquiring about the local situation is normal behavior. If you deliberately hide, your actions will be abnormal, easily exposing your ulterior motives."

"Seems to make sense." The others exchanged glances.

"...Do as Han Xiao says."

The town had entertainment facilities, small casinos, psychotropic drug stores, restaurants, and places to release physical needs. In the evening, everyone went out in twos and threes, pretending to spend normally, gathering information and collecting data, but without any substantial gains. Most of the residents here were normal wanderers. They didn't discover any suspicious targets.

Qi Bai Jia's face was grave. "The enemy is hiding too deeply. It's probably hard to get anything."

"Not necessarily." Han Xiao smiled. He knew that there was a dedicated Germination spy in Crow's Wood Town. After players completed missions and raised their favorability, they could choose to join the Germination camp. As long as they caught this NPC, they could ask for a lot of information.

Han Xiao knew the specific location of the Dark Crow Valley base, but he didn't know the specific military strength. That was too detailed. After more than a decade, he only had a vague impression of these details. Moreover, the timeline was different now, and Han Xiao didn't know if there had been any changes, so gathering information was necessary.

"Go to the south side of the town. There's a casino there, and there should be a bald man inside. That person knows the information about the Dark Crow Valley base." The person Han Xiao was talking about was the Germination spy in Crow's Wood. Players born in Crow's Wood could only join Germination through him.

Everyone was stunned. Di Su Su frowned and said, "Where did you get the information?"

"I naturally have channels."

"What if the information is wrong?" Di Su Su pressed on.

"Listen to him." Qi Bai Jia interjected. Before setting off, his superior had instructed him to trust Han Xiao, indicating that the higher-ups attached great importance to him.

Di Su Su had no choice but to suppress her doubts and follow the instructions, taking people to the casino on the south side and secretly investigating. Sure enough, they found a bald man, who was the casino's dealer.

"What should we do now? If we act rashly, we'll alert the enemy. There might be accomplices around him," Di Su Su asked.

Han Xiao's tone was helpless. "You've already found the person, and you're still asking me what to do? Can't you use your professional skills?"

Di Su Su immediately felt a tightness in her chest, speechless with anger. She also realized that she had asked a stupid question. She snorted angrily, called her teammates, and secretly surrounded him.

Han Xiao glanced at the time and got up to relieve Lin Yao for the night shift. He didn't need to watch the specific actions himself. If something went wrong with this, the Secret Intelligence agents could just buy a block of tofu and kill themselves.

At the same time, Wen Na set off with the Hai Xia agents, not forgetting to glare at Han Xiao fiercely before leaving.

Han Xiao didn't plan to stay in the base to rest. He walked out of the base, returned to Da Hei's cargo box, and secretly pondered.

The two reconnaissance missions were team missions. They could be completed without any accidents, so he should focus on the individual mission. To assassinate the sentry in the dense forest, he still needed some small tools.

Han Xiao took out the parts and focused his mind on the panel.

[Do you want to perform knowledge fusion (Basic Wide-Area Perception + Basic Bionics + Basic Mechanical Engineering)? This fusion consumes 15,000 experience.]

[Congratulations, you have developed [Small Arthropod Detector (Spider)]!]

…

Wen Na and her team wore night vision goggles and environment-adaptive camouflage suits, quietly sneaking through the mountains and forests, walking silently, like hunters in a dark forest, searching for their prey.

Sentries could only be encountered near the Dark Crow Valley base. There was a tracking master in the team who could judge the road conditions from the clues in the forest.

This tracking master was named Magnu, a burly Shanu, with a body like a small mountain. Few could imagine that he was a meticulous person. He rubbed the soil, put it to his nose, smelled it, closed his eyes, and thought for a while, saying, "Seven hours ago, one person, male, weight approximately 180 pounds, direction of travel, southwest."

Wen Na didn't doubt Magnu's judgment. She carefully led the team forward, suddenly stopping. The thermal imager showed that there was a life form squatting in a large tree 300 meters away.

"Check the surroundings!"

Wen Na was very calm. She didn't act rashly, but asked her teammates to check whether there were any sentries or monitors nearby. After carefully checking for twenty minutes, she confirmed that everything was safe.

"Take him down!" Ye Fan ordered through the communication channel.

Wen Na suddenly launched, and a dark red qi flashed under her feet, approaching the sentry within a hundred meters at an extremely fast but silent pace, using the cover of trees to hide her figure, always hiding in the enemy's blind spot, like a top assassin master. She flipped onto a tree like a nimble cat, and her palms also glowed with a dark red light, like the suction cups of an octopus adhering to the tree trunk, using this to jump continuously, suppressing the sound of the wind very low, approaching the target in the air.

The Germination sentry suddenly noticed a gust of wind brushing over his head. He looked up and saw a black shadow rapidly expanding in his retina!